Many individuals wear eyeglasses only for special purposes, such as reading, or bright sunlight. At other times the eyeglasses are stored at an accessible location on the person where they will not be damaged or soiled. A shirt or jacket pocket is the favored location. One problem is that bending over may cause the glasses to slide out and be lost or damaged.
Spring clips secured to the temple bar or earpiece of spectacles are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,779,015 issued 10/21/30 to Schmitt; U.S. Pat. No. 1,787,830 issued 1/6/31 to Marvin and U.S. Pat. No. 1,973,648 issued 9/11/34 to Nagel.
Schmitt and Marvin teach a leaf spring secured at its head to the temple bar by clamp or rivet.
Nagel teaches a leaf spring struck out of a metal plate with the head of the leaf spring attached to the plate. The plate is then curved around a resilient tube. The tube slips onto the temple bar. A catch on the plate engages the alternate earpiece to hold the glasses closed. The clips of the prior art are not readily adapted for attachment to the great variety of the sizes and shapes of earpieces in use, nor are they inexpensive to manufacture, nor are they easily attached by the user.